the lousy prince (not-so) charming

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I’ve just upgraded the blog software, WordPress from version 2.0.5 to 2,1,2. Seems like there’s no problem with the upgrade. At first I was thinking of downloading the new version from WordPress. But, I just remembered that I have Fantastico on my hosting. So, I went and check my Fantastico and there it was, a link for me to upgrade my WordPress. Just a single click, my WordPress is upgraded without hassle. But before that, I took some precaution by backing up all my old files and database. Then, I turned off all my pluggin and switched my theme back to default. Well… Just in case cos you might never know what will happen next. Haha…

Everything seems to be working great. Dashboard looks more neater. I’ll have to take some time to explorer a bit. LoL. For now, I’ll just keep my fingers cross and let it run for a couple of days.

Long story short: If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2 immediately.

Longer explanation: This morning they received a note to their security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. They took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.

It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. They have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.

This is the kind of thing you pray never happens, but it did and now they’re dealing with it as best we can. Although not all downloads of 2.1.1 were affected, they’re declaring the entire version dangerous and have released a new version 2.1.2 that includes minor updates and entirely verified files. They are also taking lots of measures to ensure something like this can’t happen again, not the least of which is minutely external verification of the download package so they’ll know immediately if something goes wrong for any reason.

What You Can Do to Help

If your blog is running 2.1.1, please upgrade immediately and do a full overwrite of your old files, especially those in wp-includes. Check out your friends blogs and if any of them are running 2.1.1 drop them a note and, if you can, pitch in and help them with the upgrade.

If you are a web host or network administrator, block access to “theme.php” and “feed.php”, and any query string with “ix=” or “iz=” in it. If you’re a customer at a web host, you may want to send them a note to let them know about this release and the above information.